Civil Site Design AI

OpenSite+ for civil site design is a set of improvements to the OpenSite civil design platform that use AI-assisted workflows, such as querying data, generating design scripts and automating miles of roadway or pipeline. 

Its AI capabilities are available now through an early-adoption program, Bentley said. OpenSite+ and other AI-enabled applications use Bentley Copilot, a context-aware AI assistant that guides users through workflows, surfaces relevant documents and can modify 3D models.

OpenUtilities Substation+, also announced, is a new application bringing digital twin and AI-powered capabilities to electrical substation design. It allows multiple users to work simultaneously in the same 3D model while using the same AI capabilities in OpenSite+.

"We have been creating a new generation of infrastructure applications built on digital twins, powered by AI, and fully connected to Bentley Infrastructure Cloud," said Francois Valois, senior vice president of the firm's open applications group. "They show what’s possible when AI is built for real infrastructure workflows and tailored to the needs of engineers."

Project Management Improvements

Synchro+ offers a series of improvements on the Bentley Synchro digital construction project delivery platform, shifting Synchro to a data-centric workflow using Bentley Copilot AI assistants. Marion Bouilli, Bentley senior product manager for Synchro+, demonstrated early-access user feedback and streamlined workflows developed through user workshops. 

Synchro+ integrates Cesium, Bentley's 3D digital tiles acquisition, for geospatial context. It uses Bentley CoPilot LLMs to leverage AI to explore construction sequencing and scheduling, and illuminate insights into both data sets. Bouilli said Synchro+ will be available to in December.

OpenRoads Designer and OpenRail Designer will also receive new AI capabilities for model-based road and rail design. An AI agent that automates drawing annotation will be generally available in November, Bentley said. Bentley Copilot will be integrated into both products in early 2026. New AI-powered search capabilities were announced for the Projectwise construction project management platform, also set to debut early next year. 

Much of the AI agent advancement was made possible by Bentley Cloud Connect, a connected data layer that allows project data to be crawled for insights into everything from design to construction sequencing, Cumins said. 

Cesium Adds Splats for Visualization

Patrick Cozzi, Bentley chief platform officer and former CEO of Cesium, which was acquired by Bentley in 2024, said Gaussian "splats" can now be used to recreate a scene from an extended point cloud and blurred to create a photo-realistic scene that can be splatted directly into Cesium's high-fidelity, low-data-weight 3D viewing platform. 

Cozzie said his group is working with Esri, the Khronos Group and others on an open standard for Gaussian splats, an increasingly popular way to share point-cloud data for quick viewing.

Cumins admitted that AI in design and construction is still evolving, asking users to help define new workflows and ways to share information with the new capabilities. “We welcome the creative ways our users are already combining our applications with AI—and we believe this is just the beginning,” he said.

Cumins announced the Infrastructure AI Co-Innovation Initiative to collaborate with engineering firms and asset owners on AI-enhanced workflows, open to Bentley users. It is designed to examine how Bentley APIs can evolve to better support AI use cases and explore new commercial models that reflect the evolving balance between AI-driven and human-driven work, he said.

"Our users are not waiting, they are going all in on AI," he said.